Malkia A. Cyril

Malkia A. Cyril is founder and Executive Director of the Center for Media Justice (CMJ) and co-founder of the Media Action Grassroots Network, a national network of community-based organizations working to ensure racial and economic justice in a digital age. Cyril is one of few leaders of color in the movement for digital rights and freedom. As a leader in the Black Lives Matter Network, they help to bring important technical safeguards and surveillance countermeasures to those across the country working to reform systemic racism and violence in law enforcement. Cyril is also a prolific writer and public speaker on issues ranging from net neutrality to the communication rights of prisoners. Their writing and comments have appeared in the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, TIME, Politico, the Huffington Post, Mic.com, Essence Magazine, and dozens more, including four documentary films including The 13th by Ava DuVernay. Cyril is a Prime Movers fellow and winner of the Electronic Frontier 2016 Pioneers Award, the 2015 Hugh Hefner 1st Amendment Award for framing net neutrality as a civil rights issue, and the 2012 Donald H. McGannon Award for work to advance the roles of women and people of color in the media reform movement.

﻿During an address to AT&T employees last month in Dallas, CEO Randall Stephenson called on those struggling with the words “Black Lives Matter” to not rebut with “all lives matter” and ignore the real need for change. They were powerful words from one of the nation’s biggest telecommunications providers. But, in the end, they were just words. Words that didn’t answer the critical, lingering question: Why now?

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"“The unabashed white nationalism of the president isn’t new, nor is his policy of collective punishment of entire nations of people. What’s new is the growing awareness of a larger and larger group of people that presidential bias has become national policy,” said Malkia Cyril, executive director of the Center for Media Justice in Oakland."

""The vote to repeal net neutrality is easily the most unpopular decision the FCC has ever made," said Malkia Cyril, a civil rights activist and director of the Center for Media Justice, in an email to Truthout. "The level of corruption and outright disdain for democracy shown by the Republican members of the FCC has been atrocious.""

"Malkia Cyril, founder and executive director of the Center for Media Justice, has been on the frontline of the fight for a free and fair internet for more than 15 years. They helped put the phrase “net neutrality” on the map.

""The open Internet has allowed women to bypass traditional patriarchal gatekeepers in media and the economy to speak for themselves and gain access to opportunities and income streams that might otherwise be unavailable to them," Malkia Cyril, the executive director of The Center for Media Justice, told Newsweek. "A repeal ... will open the door for a heightened level of online discrimination and censorship that can only reduce voice and opportunity for women.""

"“A Net Neutrality repeal would remove one of the very few most important first amendment protections communities of color have today, at a time when free speech protections are more important than ever," said Malkia Cyril, executive director at the Center for Media Justice. "The right to speak and be heard; the ability to seek opportunity, stay connected, and protest injustice -- these are core civil rights. In a digital age, protecting core civil rights means enforcing, not repealing, Title II Net Neutrality.”"

For 15 years there's been a heated battle over your right to privacy online -- from the Patriot Act to the Snowden revelations to the recent repeal of Internet privacy protections. What can we expect in the Trump Era? What's at stake? Who's at risk? And, most of all, what can you do to protect yourself and defend democracy in a digital world?

This week on CounterSpin: FCC chair Ajit Pai has announced his plans to gut net neutrality; the former Verizon lawyer and Jeff Sessions staffer declared his intentions at a private event in DC. So the victory activists fought for—having broadband recognized as a public utility like the telephone, and not some sort of corporate gift—is in jeopardy. What does this mean for all of us who rely on an open internet, and in particular for communities of color, for whom the web’s relatively even playing field is crucial for communication and organizing?